"Why?!"
"It wasn't my fault!"
Murphy pouted stubbornly, looking defiant.
Donald sighed, feeling that it was really not easy to get his granddaughter a proper education.
"So you think the world is wrong?"
Although Murphy didn't speak, she nodded firmly.
Donald opened his mouth, but just like he had in the office, he hesitated and didn't say anything.
"Well, the world is indeed at fault."
He still couldn't bring himself to lie to his granddaughter.
Murphy raised her chin slightly, gave a cold snort, and realized that she was clearly right, yet her grandfather was still scolding her.
Donald ignored her little bit of pride and started the car on his own. The sound of the engine and the vibrations of the car brought him back to his senses, and he finally spoke to Murphy again:
"Do you think you're the only one in the world who knows that the world is currently operating according to flawed rules?"
Murphy's expression shifted, and his eyes turned, seemingly not understanding the hidden meaning in his grandfather's words.
Donald stepped on the gas, letting out a long breath that faintly smelled of corn. He continued, "In this respect, you're the one who's wrong."
"In fact, all adults know that the world is wrong."
"Your grandfather knows, your father knows, your teacher knows... Even if someone doesn't know, they'll know once they've gone hungry. Your stomach will tell you whether you're on the right path."
"... Then why is Miss Hanley still treating me like this?" Murphy's mouth remained agape for a long time.
Donald drove, glancing at her in the rearview mirror as he did so. "Everyone knows they were wrong, but what good does that do?"
Who can stand up, overthrow everything, and shatter everything?
Even if someone manages to do all of this, so what?
Murphy sat still in the passenger seat, her mouth agape, but she remained silent for a long time.
Grandpa Donald gripped the steering wheel with both hands, his eyes fixed straight ahead, but his voice kept ringing in her ears.
"Right now, nothing can be grown in the fields except corn. Sooner or later, even corn won't be able to be grown, and then everyone will starve to death."
"Can those who rise up in rebellion make other crops grow back in the fields?"
"If this cannot be done, then..."
Nothing can be changed.
"The upper limit of productivity is there; everyone can see and touch it. It's like a rein around everyone's neck. Whether you want to rebel against your predetermined fate or not, in the end, you can only be like an obedient ox, led by it towards destruction..."
As he spoke, Donald couldn't take it anymore. He pulled the car over to the side of the road to relieve his inner turmoil.
These pessimistic words shouldn't be said to a child like Murphy.
But Murphy learned more and more, yet she was also too naive, like a child who observed a toy car in his hand and thought he understood how cars work, saying that cars move because they are driven by wheels.
That's true, but it's too simplistic.
She hadn't considered the truly complex issues involved at all.
The world today is far more complex than a moving car...
"Listen, Murphy, it's not that others don't want to rebel against this flawed world, it's just that everyone knows no one can correct the real error, so they've fallen into despair... The Blight is incurable..."
Murphy stared blankly, overwhelmed by the cruel truth she was witnessing for the first time.
"Does that mean we have no hope left?"
Donald's lips twitched. He had just wanted to crush his granddaughter's naivety, but now, seeing her dejected look, he wanted to give her a glimmer of hope.
Donald patted Murphy's head, and finally gave an uncertain answer:
Maybe so.
"Your father went against fate, and there are many others around him who are also striving."
For some reason, Donald suddenly remembered the young men who had come to his house a few months ago with news of Cooper.
Those people once said that the world would soon see a turning point...
But just how fast is "very fast"?
Will his old bones even have time to see it?
Donald didn't know.
He sat in the car for a while, thinking, and then suddenly realized that instead of wasting time on this, he should think about what flavor of corn porridge to make tonight so that the two children could eat more.
He's just not cut out for it.
The car started again.
The two didn't exchange a single word on their way home. Murphy was very downcast; her grandfather's last two words had failed to give her any hope.
After returning home,
Murphy habitually returned to his room, then looked at the radio plugged in on the table, wanting to turn it on, but he couldn't muster the energy.
After the conversation, she deeply felt her powerlessness in the face of such a big picture.
Her intelligence, far from helping her at this moment, actually intensified this feeling.
She simply couldn't think of a solution.
Only today, inspired by her grandfather's words, did this child, who had never experienced hunger, truly realize that when nothing can be grown in the ground, humans can indeed starve to death.
This is an unchangeable deadlock.
Countless people before her had tried to change this fact from countless angles, but in the end, nothing changed...
Those people might be even smarter than her...
well!
Click.
Taking advantage of the last moments before dinner, Murphy, with the attitude that "since I'm already here," turned on the radio. After a burst of static, the voice of the host from her favorite overseas channel came through the machine:
"Through the application of new aerospace technologies, my country has greatly shortened spacecraft journeys, accelerated the pace of space exploration, and improved exploration efficiency, thus achieving great results..."
Surprisingly, this channel, which usually focuses on the plight of starving people, is now reporting on space news?
Speaking of this, Murphy thought of his astronaut father, wondering if he was already in space.
With that in mind, Murphy turned his gaze to the lunar module model on the table.
"... With great joy, we solemnly announce to the people of the world that the Nova Exploration Program has been a complete success! The unmanned spacecraft Nova, traversing a wormhole, has successfully discovered a habitable Earth-like planet among the three target stars!"
Preliminary exploration results indicate that the planet's atmospheric composition is similar to Earth's, its environment is suitable, and it already possesses a fairly mature and stable ecosystem...
For a moment, Murphy froze in place.
After her mouth opened and closed meaninglessly a few times, she instinctively shouted:
Grandpa!!!
------Aside------
I'm taking one last day off this month. Too much to do at the beginning of the month, and I might have to travel out of the province in the middle of the month to finish writing my manuscript. I hope there's no pandemic, and that the trip there and back go smoothly. -- July 4th